creative. barely.

Monthly Archives: December 2013

Last year, I wrote a blog that poo-pooed New Year’s resolutions, and here’s why. Most resolutions are transactional changes. What people need, more often than not, is transformational change.

A transactional change is temporary. It is not permanent. According to a University of Scranton study, about 45% of Americans make New Years Resolutions. However, only about 8% succeed in achieving their resolutions. Whatever the true motivation may be, it seems that most New Years Resolutions are for the sake of conversation. That’s transactional.

Transformational change only takes place when the individual goes through true metamorphosis. The old person is no longer, and a new person exists in its place.

Gavin Trom at ONE* Spokane suggested that failed resolutions and failed goals are half-measures. He challenged the congregation to go all in with true change in 2014, and I agree.

This year, don’t just make a resolution, make a commitment to transformation. Make this the best year ever by committing to being the best version of yourself. Make true change happen.

Everything has an expiration date, well except maybe true love and Jesus. Your job is to be prepared for the time when your marketing and/or sales efforts expire.

Whether it’s Facebook or LinkedIn, certain tools you use to help grow your business will no longer be effective. However, instead of holding on to those tools like their precious resources, you should have a succession plan in place.

What does a succession plan look like? It’s really just a marketing plan. Understanding your company, your target, and your why, will give you the foundation you need to be successful marketing on whichever platform makes sense for your business.

Having this solid marketing foundation will help your business adapt to any changes in the marketing sphere. The key is to always be paying attention to where your target spends their time. So, understanding your target becomes invaluable. Once you truly understand your target demographic, you can easily move channels with them.

Gamification: the use of game thinking and game mechanics in non-game contexts to engage users in solving problems.*

Something interesting happened the other day. I volunteer with a non-profit and in one of the meetings the topic of volunteer appreciation was started. Specifically, should the organization start a reward program for volunteers that meet certain criteria, like Volunteer of the Month. I liked the idea and suggested that we could set an objective benchmark – e.g. most hours volunteered – and then reward the person with something simple like a coffee gift card. In gamification terms, this would be considered a badge.